Machine for settling material in bags or the like.



4 0 9 l 6 1 G U A D E T N E T A N 0 S R B K G I N H w 0 9 7 6 7 0 N MACHINE FOR SBTTLING MATERIAL 'IN'BAGS OR THE LIKE. APPLIQATIOH mm) mm as, 1902.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

H0 MODEL.

I. ll'lllllll PATENTED -AUG. 1'6, 1904.

w. E. NIGKBRSON. MACHINE FOR SETTLING MATERIAL IN BAGS OR THE LIKE.

APPLIOATIQN IILED mm 2a, 1902.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- 30' MODEL;

jiwewon' EA-MW flaw-lee y UNITED STATES Patented August 16, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM EMERY NICKERSON, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, AS-

SIGNOR TO AUTOMATIC IVEIGHING MACHINE COMPANY, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEIV YORK.

MACHINE FOR SETTLING MATERIAL IN BAGS OR THE LIKE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 767,590, dated'Aug'ust 16, 1904.

Application filed June 28, 1902.

T0 mZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM EMEEY NIOK- ERSON, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Settling Material in Bags or the Like, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus for shaking down or settling finely-divided substances in bags or other receptacles, and is intended to provide an apparatus of the character referred to which may be used in connection with automatic weighing or measuring machines and will effectively settle the successive loads of material as fast as they can be delivered by such a machine and will also require the services of but one attendant.v

To this end a main feature of my invention consists in the provision of two independentlyoperated receptacle-agitators combined with mechanism whereby the successive loads of ments in their preferred form is illustrated inv the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of the complete apparatus at rest, showing a funnel in vertical section. Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken onthe line a; w in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is ahorizontal section taken on the line yy in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a plan view of bag-clamping devices hereinafter described.

In the drawings, 2 represents the supporting framework of my apparatus, which may Serial No. 113,559- (No model.)

conveniently have the form, roughly speaking, of an inverted U and is adapted to be bolted at one end to the wall of a room or other suitable fixed support directly beneath the machine which delivers the successive loads of material.

A horizontal rod 3 is secured to the lower ends of the frame 2, and on said rod are journaled two arms 4:, which extend horizontally in the same direction and are adapted to carry on their outer ends the bags which receive the material. As these two arms are or may be precisely alike, it will be necessary to describe but one of them in detail. Referring to Figs. 2 and 3, in which one of these arms 4: is shown in side elevation and top plan view, 5 indicates a funnel which is attached to the free end of said arm and by preference is detachably secured thereto, as shown at 6, in order that funnels of different sizes, corresponding with the various bags employed, may be used with the same machine. The lower end of the funnel 5 extends far enough below the arm 7, which carries it, to enable the neck of a bag to be slipped up over said lower end and to be firmly secured thereto by suitable means. My preferred form of clamp for this purpose consists of two similar segments 8, formed to fit the outside of the funnel 5 and each secured to the lower end of a hanger 9, which is pivoted to the side of the funnel, as at 10. Each segment 8 is detachably connected to .its hanger 9 by means of I a slotted projection 11, secured to said segment and clamped against thebottom of the hanger by means of a bolt 12 passing through the slot in said projection, the adjustment of the segment being determined by bolts 13 passing through the lower portion of the hanger and bearing against the outer edge of said segment. On its inner face each of the segments 8 is preferably provided with a cusion 14, of rubber or other compressible material. After the neck of a bag has been drawn over the lower end of the funnel 5 the segments 8 are pressed inward against said bag and funnel by means such as links 15 and 16, pivoted to each other and to the upper ends of the hangers 9, thus be provided with spring-jaws 18, arranged to embrace the link 16, and thus hold said links in the position shown in Fig. 2. A shaft 19 is journaled horizontally in the framework 2 and is drivencontinuouslyby suitable means, such as intermeshing gears'20 and 21 and a belt-pulley 22, said shaft being provided with means for alternately raising and dropping each'arm 4. a toothed wheel 23, rigidly secured to the shaft 19above each arm 4, an arm '24 being? pivoted at its lower end to eacharm 4 and 'provided at its upper end with a head 25, so

formed as to be engaged by the teeth 5260f the corresponding wheel 23 when'drawn into the proper position by means of a spring-27. Thus whenever said head 25 is in position to. be engaged by the teeth 26 'it and the arm 4 will be lifted until said head is 'pushedou't of engagement with the tooth which raises it by the "projecting lower corner 28, formed on said tooth, whereupon the arm 4 will drop until its motion is arrested by a buffer or other fixedsupport 29. The bags whichreceive the material are not supported from. below, but are suspended by their necksby being clamped to the funnels 5, as above described, and hence solong as the engagement of either of the heads 25 with the teeth 26 is permitted the corresponding arm 4 will alter-' nately lift and dropthe 'bag which itcarries, I thus settling the material contained therein.

- According to the construction shown the shaft 19 is caused to operate the arm 4 in the manner just describedduring one'revo'lution, whereupon such operation is :liscon'tinue ':l'until another charge of material has been delivered through the corresponding funnel'5, the number of vibrations given to said arm 4 ateach operation thereof thus being equal to'the number of teeth 26 on the wheel 23. F or stopping these vibrations automaticallyat the; proper time I provide in connection with each wheel 23 a friction-clutch, preferably consist-; ing of a collar 30, mounted loosely on the shaft 19 and pressed against said wheel 23 by a spring 31. A disk of leather 32is usually interposed between said collar and wheel for the purposeofincreasingthefriction. On thecollar 30 is formed a cam-shaped projection 33, which when it is broughtoppositethe head 25 by the rotation of the-shaft 19 operates-to In order to provide To this'end I prefer to employ 'sary here to describe in detail.

'tated alternately through a small angle by means of flaps 41,

push said head away from the wheel 23 and out of engagement with its teeth 26, thereby stopping the vibration of the corresponding arm 4. At this point the rotation of the collar 30 is stopped by means such as a latcharm 34, pivoted at one end to a hanger 35, secured to the framework 2 and provided with a notch 36, which receives a pin 37, carried by the collar30. The rotation of said collar being thus arrested while the head 25 is out of engagement with the teeth 26, no further vibration of the arm 4 can occur until the latch-arm 34 is lifted.

The loads of material to be settled are conveyed to the'funnels 5 through suitable chutes 38, these chutes being shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 in order not to obscure the illustration of the parts behind them. The arrangement of chutes shown in Fig. 1 is suited for use in connection with an automatic weighing-machine of the twin-bucket type, which itself has two delivery-chutes and delivers the successive loads of material through said chutes alternately, such a machine being shown in Letters Patent of the United States, No. 555,393, granted to me on the 25th day of February, 1896. It will be understood, however, that my present invention'is equally well adapted for use in connection with two alternately-operating weighing or measuring machines or with weighing or measuring machines which discharge the'material through a single chute only, in which latter case the successive loads will be diverted into the funnels 5 alternately by means which are well known in the art and which it is not neces- According to the arrangement shown in Fig. 1 a rod 39 is journaled above the central partition 40, which separates the chutes 38, and said rod 39 is roin opposite directions which are secured thereto and are located in the path of the descending loads of material,

that the delivery-chutes of the twin-bucket weighing-machine above referred to are located, respectively,-above the flaps 41 and discharge into the top of the chutes 38. Upon the discliarg'e'of aload from either bucket of the weighing-machine the corresponchng flap 41 is depressed bythe weight of the descending material and rocks the shaft 39, thus causing the cam 42 to operate the corresponding lever 43 and raise the latch-arm 34, to which itis connected. The corresponding collar 30 is thereby released and immediately begins to rotate with the shaft 19, and after it has so rotated through an angle which depends upon the shape of the cam 33 the arm 24 and head 25 are drawn toward the wheel 23 by the spring 27 whereupon the corresponding arm 4. is vibrated, as above described, until said head 25 is thrown out of engagement with the teeth 26 by thecam 33 at the end of one rotation of the shaft 19. At this point the rotation of the collar 30 is arrested by the latch-arm 34, as above described, and the arm 4 then remains at rest until another charge of material is delivered to the corresponding chute 38. The shape of the cam 33 is preferably such that a part or all of each load of. material willhave time to fall past the flap 41 and through the chute 38 and funnel 5 into the bag which is attached to said funnel before the vibrations of the arm 4 commence. As soon as a load of material has been delivered through one of the funnels 5 and shaken down in the bag which is attached thereto said bag is released by opening the clamping-segments 8 and thus permitting the bag to drop from the funnel by its own weight. I prefer to effect the releasing of the bags automatically, and to this end I provide a lever 45, which is pivotally secured to the arm 4 and extends at one end to a point just above the connected ends of the togglelinks 15 and 16, at which point it is provided with a pin 46, which extends laterally over said links. The other end of said lever 45 is carried to a position adjacent to the hub of the collar 30, which is provided with a camshaped projection 47, so located that simultaneously with or just after the disengagement of thehead 25 from the wheel 23 the lever 45 will be tilted by the cam 47. The pin 46 is thus caused to engage the connected ends of the links 15 and 16 and force them downward, therebyopening the clamping-segments 8 and releasing the bag, which may fall into or uponany suitable device for carrying it away. While .one bag is being filled and shaken down the'operator draws the neck of another empty bag over the funnel 5 and secures it thereto by raising the connected ends of the toggle-links 15 and 16 into the position shown in Fig. 1, whereupon the bag thus attached is ready to receive the next load of material. The successive loads of the material arethus delivered alternately through the two funnels 5, and the only attendance requiredis that involved in attaching the empty bags to said funnels alternately, as above described.

I consider. the arrangement according to which the mechanism which vibrates the arms 4 is positively connected to and operated by the shaft 19, while the friction-clutch is relied upon merely to disconnect said arms and shaft, to be an important feature of my invention, as I am thereby enabled to operate upon heavy loads of material without depending upon friction for the proper operation of the apparatus. It will be understood, however, that the apparatus described may be variously modified without departing from my invention, since, so for as I am aware, I am the first to devise a duplex apparatus composed of two similar settling mechanisms which operate alternately, and thus enable the attendant to attach an empty receptacle simultaneously with the filling of the one previously attached, thereby making the operation of the apparatus practically continuous.

It will be noticedthat the framework 2, as shown in the drawings, has both of its sides made alike, and this ismy preferred construction, since I am thus enabled to locate the funnels 5 on either side of said framework, according to the requirements of the space in which the apparatus is to be located. To effect a reversal of the position of the parts, the hangers 35 are removed and bolted to the opposite side of the framework at 48, the rod 3, with the'arms 4 and funnels 5 attached, is turned end for end and transferred to the opposite ends of the laterally-extending lower ends. of the framework 2, and the shaft 19 is also turned end for end, first removing the gear 20 and finally replacing the same.

I claim as my invention 1. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of two receptacleagitators, located adjacent to each other, means for supplying successive loads of mar terial thereto alternately, and means foropcrating each of said agitators for a predetermined interval independently of the other.

2. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of two vibrating receptacle-agitators, means for supplying loads of material thereto alternately, and means for operating each of said agitators while the otheris at rest.

3. In an apparatus. of the character de-. scribed, the combination of two vibrating receptacle-agitators, means for supplying loads of material thereto alternately, a shaft and means for driving the same continuously, and means operated by said shaft for actuating said agitators independently of each other.

4. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of two vibrating.re. ceptacle-agitators, means for supplying loads of material thereto alternately, means for operating each of said agitators independently of the other and means for stopping such operation after a predeterminedv interval.

5. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of an arm, means for detachably securing a receptacle thereto, a shaft and means for driving the same continuously, a toothed wheel secured to said shaft, a head connected to said arm and adapted to be engaged, lifted and dropped by. said provided with receptacle-carrying arms, a reversible shaft journaled in said framework and provided with means for operating said arms, and means for driving said shaft.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this 9th day of June, 1902.

WILLlAlll EMERY NICKERSON.

Witnesses:

E. D. CHADWIOK, J OSEPH T. BRENNAN. 

